From New Orleans to Biloxi

It was yet another bright and early morning. The guys were spread out in two rooms, but somehow all found themselves at McDonald's for breakfast. The ladies went to some fancy coffee shop and had a good breakfast.

The Holiday Inn we stayed in was very nice and located in the French Quarter. We took a Katrina tour by bus. Our tour today took place five years after the hurricane, yet the devastation is still evident everywhere. We were waiting to see this damage first hand, knowing that it would impact us much more after we saw it. Our tour guide repeated over and over that the earthen dams held, but the flood walls failed or were not high enough to stop the 32 foot storm surge. In addition to that, the 17th street canal that was designed to take the water out of New Orleans actually acted as another path for the water to flow into the city from the North side. This happened because of the counter-clockwise circulation of the hurricane. We took lots of photos to show everyone when we return.

We had lunch at The Gumbo Shop restaurant and enjoyed some alligator sausage (yum!), crawfish, gumbo, and jambalaya. Our young waiter David (who looked like a young Mr. T) was a new waiter and we joked with him until he relaxed. He was a New Orleans resident from the Upper 9th Ward, which was hit the hardest of all areas. He advised us that his large family evacuated at the last minute. They returned to see their devastated home for the first time two months after the storm. He stated that it was 5 months after the storm until they were able to return and start the long clean up. They just completed their home only 3 months ago.

After lunch we jumped in the vans and headed to Biloxi, Mississippi, to begin the task we came here for. We arrived around 4:30 at Camp Victor and settled into our bunk room. The staff debriefed us on the house rules and we sat down to dinner at 6 pm. We will gather back together at 8 pm for a team debrief and lights out follow at 10 pm.

God has blessed us with a good indoctrination of New Orleans, which we are grateful for, but we are anxious to get started with Habitat tomorrow. The temperature is expected to be in the high 80’s and the humidity is similar to our summer weather. We’ve all been sweating from the heat already and everyone has changed to shorts!

Thanks to all who are following our blog. Stay tuned tomorrow for the results of our first work day. We don’t know yet what we will be doing.

- Written by Wayne and Bob on behalf of the team